The Schuylkill 16 Week 9: Temple toppled

As we all know, this past weekend was a rough one for our local teams. Temple was blown out by Kansas, La Salle lost brutally at Binghamton and Penn State fell at home to Wisconsin.

All three city teams in intra-Schuylkill 16 games lost them: Drexel at Delaware, Penn at Lafayette and St. Joe's at home to Princeton in rather shocking fashion.

So it's not surprising that there's quite a shakeup in this week's Schuylkill 16 rankings. Villanova has jumped over Temple into first place by a wide margin after winning at Marquette, while Drexel has fallen to eighth and St. Joe's to ninth.

Princeton has made the biggest jump, rising two spots to seventh. There's also some movement among the lowest-ranked teams, althoug the last-place team is the same as ever.

By the way, there are a few good pieces worth reading this morning that you may have missed yesterday. First of all, Kyle Whelliston of midmajority.com is in town at the moment, and I've heard he'll be here for about a week. He's written a long post about his view of Philadelphia that might get you stirred up a bit. Here's a particularly juicy excerpt:

... [I]t's a fantasy city that I can appreciate because I don't live here anymore. It's a great place to visit now, the people smile a little more, and there's a new bump or three on the skyline every time I come through. The Philadelphia renaissance, real or imagined, is something I'm more than happy to cheer for from a safe and distant distance.

Secondly, my good friend Dave Zeitlin of the Penn Gazette caught up with Lafayette coach and former Penn assistant Fran O'Hanlon over the weekend to get O'Hanlon's view on the Quakers' situation.

(As an aside, the Penn fans among you really ought to be reading Zeitlin's blog. It's run by the school's alumni magazine, but Zeitlin does a very good job of writing objectively.)

A nugget from O'Hanlon:

"Go Quakers," the Lafayette coach said before hanging up. "I'm a huge Quakers fan."

Now for this week's rankings:

1. Villanova, 16 points (12 first-place votes)
- "Scottie Reynolds might not be the best guard in the city, but he comes up big when it counts." (Rob Falcone)

I might just make a poll out of that comment one of these days.

2. Temple, 26 points (2 first-place votes)
- "Were they overrated or is Kansas just that good? I'll go with both." (Rob Falcone)
- "I wouldn't be too worried about Temple. The Owls simply shot the ball exceptionally poorly... and played against Kansas." (Josh Wheeling)

3. Penn State, 52 points
- "I can't think of anything funny to say here, so I'll leave it to Nick Catrambone. I'm sure he'll come up with something." (Mario Machi)
- "Two weeks ago, there was a huge talent drop off in this poll after #7. Now it's after #2." (Nick Catrambone)

Sorry, Mario.

4. Rutgers, 70 points
- "It's a sad state of affairs for the Schuylkill 16 when a team can lose a home conference game by 7 points and move up in my rankings." (Mario Machi)

5. La Salle, 74 points

6. Rider, 86 points

7. Princeton, 97 points
- "I'm putting the Tigers at No. 4, because I'd feel dirty giving it to La Salle after they lost to Binghamton." (Nick Catrambone)
- "Since I could not work "Start calling him Cleveland, because Nick Lake is on fire" into my Princeton/Maine recap, I debut this line here instead." (Jon Solomon, princetonbasketball.com)

Better that than a Lake-effect snowstorm of points, right?*

8. Drexel, 105 points
- "A loss to Delaware? As Seth Meyers and Amy Poehler would say, 'Really?!?! Really?!?!'" (Mario Machi)

9. Saint Joseph's, 130 points
- "Pomeroy gives Temple a 96% chance of beating St. Joe's tonight. 'So you're saying there's a chance??'" (Brian O'Neill)
- "Princeton's win at St. Joe's was a shock to me, though it really shouldn't have been." (Josh Wheeling)

10. Lehigh, 140 points
- "I want to explain Lehigh by calling them a football school, but that's not true unless you count the Eagles." (Brian Ewart)

11. Lafayette, 157 points

12. Delaware, 162 points

13. Bucknell, 178 points
- "The Bison fall to 0-3 vs. the Ivy League. Any chance Penn can sneak them on the schedule?" (Jeff Shafer)

Bucknell lost at Dartmouth, which is actually ranked lower in Pomeroy than Penn. Really.

14. Monmouth, 182 points
- "It is far more exciting to try to figure how to rank the teams from 10 to 16. All of them want to be ranked 16th so badly. I actually have to put stock in Monmouth beating Quinnipiac." (Todd Falkenberg)

15. Delaware State, 205 points
- "In my best Harry Doyle voice from Major League, '1 win against D-I schools? That's all we got? 1 stinking win?'" (Nick Catrambone)

16. Penn, 224 points
- "Definitely the worst team in Big 5 history." (Loren Phan)
- "Even NJIT wins a couple games nowadays." (Brian Ewart)
- "Penn (#338 in RPI) takes on UMBC (#339) Wednesday night. The crowd should hold up signs like they do in Dayton for the Play in Game - 'Go #64' and 'Go #65'"

* - Yeah, that was terrible. But I felt like it deserved something.

Kutztown
- "9-0, averaging 87 points/game. These guys are handing out beatings all over." (Nick Catrambone, who has the Golden Bears ranked 12th)

Neuman-Goretti High School
- "They have four Division I players, which is surely more than Penn, right?" (Mario Machi, who has the Saints ranked 16th)

I could be polite and note the Quakers' injuries. Or not.